State gets 2 months to deal with illegal buildings

Coming down heavily on Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) of merely being keen to provide relief to the owners of unauthorised construction instead of initiating action against them, the first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan said, “We have already noted in our earlier order that the remedy under section 113 C of the Act is illusionary unless Rules and Regulations are framed thereunder.” 

However, acceding to Advocate General R Muthukuaraswamy’s plea seeking another two months to complete the process, the bench said, “We however simultaneously direct that on the expiry of two months time it shall be presumed that the State government is not interested in notifying the regulation and giving intent to sec 113C and thus action must be proceeded thereafter in accordance with law.” The matter relates to a contempt notice against CMDA, Member Secretary, for failing to call for the meeting of the monitoring committee to implement certain guidelines issued by the court. Also, declining to discharge the CMDA, Member Secretary, CMDA from the contempt proceedings, the bench also expressed dissatisfaction on perusing the affidavit of Principal Secretary CMDA and the status report filed by the Chief Secretary, on the regularisation scheme if the buildings satisfy public safety norms in the light of “new technological developments”. On noting that the example of public safety norms stated in the report revolves around establishing fire hydrants in streets and link buildings in continuous built up area through collapsible connection, the bench held that though Justice Rajewaran Committee furnished its report more than a year ago, nothing has happened.

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has directed the state government to constitute an expert committee headed by former Madras High Court Judge K N Basha to make necessary recommendations so that government shall notify the tariff for omnibus operators. 

In the suo moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) taken against alleged fleecing of the omnibus operators the omnibus operator’s counsels argued that the agents would only collect individual fares and not the operators but the judges refused to buy the argument and said it is crystal clear that what could not be done by the operators cannot be done by their agents also. Therefore, neither the contract carriage operator nor his licensed agent could collect the individual fares. While admitting that the collecting individual fares is illegal, the Special Government Pleader submitted that the government authorities could not take action against the violators because of two reasons including that of government not fixing fares despite availability of provision under section 67 of the Motor Vehicles Act of 1988 and also the State Transport Appellate Tribunal had set aside orders of cancelling permits of the omnibuses which have violated the rules. 

Disposing the suo motu writ petition the division bench has directed for formation of the five-member expert committee consisting of former HC judge K N Basha, the state Transport Commissioner, the Director of Institute of Road Transport, the Joint Secretary, Home (Transport) department and the Joint Secretary, Home (Finance) department. The committee should submit a detailed recommendations to the government within a period of four months from the date of its first sitting. On receipt, the government should fix, as per the Motor Vehicles Act, minimum and maximum individual fares for passengers who travel in the contract carriages, that is the omnibus operators, and issue the notification in the official gazette within 12 weeks ruled the court.

The Madras High Court has directed the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consider the plea to remove the ‘wrong’ depiction of the Nadar community in the Social Science text book of Class nine.

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan held that, “We consider it appropriate that NCERT should examine the representation of the petitioner dated September 14 more specifically in view of the communication of the Regional Director, the CBSE dated October 6, 2016 informing that the NCERT has constituted a committee to review the textbooks of Social Science and Political Science and the NCERT has not yet informed the CBSE about the decision of the committee in this matter.” “It appears that the CBSE will consider the matter only once the NCERT takes a view on the matter. The representation may be decided and the decision be communicated by NCERT to CBSE within 3 months on receipt of a copy of this order,” the bench held.

K Balu, president, Advocates Forum for Social Justice, had contended that a topic in the book titled ‘Caste, Conflict and Dress Change’ wrongly depicts members of the Nadar community as migrants. He further stated that as per the chapter, the Shanars (also called Nadars) were a community of toddy tappers who migrated to Southern Travancore to work under Nair landlords. As they were considered a ‘subordinate caste, they were prohibited from using umbrellas and wearing shoes or golden ornaments. Men and women were also expected to follow the local custom of never covering their upper bodies before the upper castes. On noting that the aspects about Nadars in the book were contrary to facts, he said the Nadar community hails from Kanyakumari District, which was the then Travancore Samasthanam. They had also held important portfolios in the administration of the then Samast han, he added.

The Madras High Court has observed that the cash crunch faced by middle class families in drawing money would be solved in two days once the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) distributes currencies of Rs 500 denomination.

Justice N Kirubakaran made the observation while hearing a plea seeking for a direction to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies to follow Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines relating to demonetisation and permit withdrawal of cash and exchange of old currencies in the societies. The judge also sought the RBI counsel to get instructions as to when would Rs 500 denomination currencies be made available to the people in Tamil Nadu. However, the RBI counsel submitted that there are practical difficulties in transporting the currencies, in view of a recent seizure of Rs 500 crore in a container near Coimbatore. The counsel then assured to convey the court’s concern to the RBI officials, and submitted that he would inform the court about the tentative date when the currencies would reach the state. As to the plea to permit the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCB) to exchange the demonetised currencies, the RBI’s counsel said, “The decision to ban DCCBs from exchanging notes was made apprehending malpractices.”